What did you do in KSP1 today?

[RoboRay]

10 hours ago, Spacetraindriver said:

Now I now everyone on this site has been to every planet and moon a million times, so I'm asking, what are some Dunar sights I could send my rover to? I'm thinking maybe those...canyons (?) west or maybe the circle-ish shaped depression up north.

The current Duna is very bland and flattish, compared to the original Duna.  I suggest trying the Duna Restoration Project if you want to go back to a more interesting Duna with much greater terrain relief.

 

 

Edited December 22, 2017 by RoboRay

[Guest]

On 12/18/2017 at 8:51 AM, Earthlinger said:

Today I launched my first ever Minmus base. I've been to Minmus multiple times before, to set up probes for communications and to dump random debris from passing rockets, but I've never launched a serious mission to the surface itself (with the exception of a single probe, which left soon after and then burned up in Kerbin's atmosphere). Needless to say, Minmus has often been neglected in favor of Duna and Eve (though Eve missions usually contain mishaps, such as explosions, explosions, and sometimes even explosions). Today I fixed that by launching a small research base, which I plan to expand into a mining facility for passing ships. (Sort of like a pit stop)

Five kerbals, at the moment, but I plan to expand later on. The only problem is I have little experience with surface intercepts, so landing in the same spot again will require a lot of quicksaves....

Thats a nice base. I made my first a while back, for career mode.

[AngrybobH]

Yesterday and today I built and setup a new computer. I did this specifically for KSP because I want more parts before slow downs and my christmas tree (in the challenge thread) totally crashes my old system. i went from an AMD phenom II 965be with 16gb to a ryzen 5 1600 and 32 gb ram and, of course, I had to install KSP on the new SSD. So far I have firefox, steam, and KSP installed....seems like I'm done, right?

[Tyko]

Made progress in my 2.5x SSRSS game. The science team wanted samples from a deep crater on the Moon and the engineering team wanted to test returning anything from Moon in order to start working towards an eventual crewed landing. Developed a 2-stage lander with all the science experiments in the return portion (I'm not using science return boxes yet). After a number of test launches and a few glitches the engineers had to work out, we got the go to complete the mission. Best part was that 2.5x is pushing me to be really careful on DeltaV and, except for the lander, every stage had less than 50 DV left after it was used.

Here are the highlights. The full album can be found here : https://imgur.com/a/J8muX

 

Edited December 22, 2017 by Tyko

[MintChocChip5]

Added moar boosters for "better testing results".

 

As you probably guessed.... It didn't end well

[qzgy]

I haven't posted here in a while. Lets see...

Spoiler

Made a fighter plane, abusing some of the mechanics/coding of KSP

Also started work on a well sized Christmas tree for the challenge and made a little RC Car For Bill.

Oh, and made a giant stupid SSTO.

 

Not all in one day of course.

[Triop]

[Spacetraindriver]

Something broke...

Is this some new kind of Kraken i'm not aware of or..?

[LordFerret]

@Triop
That's an interesting color scheme.

@Spacetraindriver
I'll say! That looks like the eye of the Kraken. Looks like you had the resources overlay toggled?

 

In my world:
The SCANsat-Eeloo, which I had thought I lost, turned out to not be lost. Go figure. It came up on an intercept and I did an insertion burn for it... it's now orbiting and scanning Eeloo. The crewed lander is in orbit, waiting; We want to see the preliminary scans before trying to pick an LZ. Even if we find a nice spot to set down, I think we'll wait a little longer for the rover to arrive. Should be soon.

[selfish_meme]

After a lot of testing I have pretty much setup my new install graphically, played around with the new post processing mod KS3P need to turn down the bloom and lens dirt, getting about 40FPS here

And my Atlas Mercury with the bloom reduced

 

Edited December 23, 2017 by selfish_meme

[Jett_Quasar]

Today I uploaded my new video featuring designs from The Last Jedi

 - Jett

[DAL59]

On 12/21/2017 at 6:17 PM, RoboRay said:

The attached stage provides the last 200 m/sec or so to reach LEO, performs the Trans-Lunar Injection, and captures the lander into orbit around the Moon.  The manned orbiter will launch separately once the lander is in LEO, perform its own TLI one orbit after the lander departs LEO, and rendezvous with the lander in lunar orbit for docking and crew transfer for the actual landing.

Don't forget to submit that to the 

 

[Spacetraindriver]

I was switching to another ship because the camera started freaking out. It never loaded. It kept on playing this on loop...until  forcequited the game.

Spoiler

 

What is it?

[Jett_Quasar]

The following craft files have been uploaded to my Star Wars Hanger on Kerbal-X:

Kylo Ren's Tie Silencer (Stock SSTO)

AT-M6

Ski Speeder

Resistance Bomber

Z3-R0

See them all in action in my latest video:

 - Jett

Edited December 23, 2017 by Jett_Quasar

[Corona688]

My miner landed.

Surprisingly it generates enough electricity for itself, even without the upgrade I've  been planning, though I may send it some fuel cells.

Also, I apparently shipped it with 300 ore.  I probably shouldn't have done that.

Edited December 24, 2017 by Corona688

[LordFerret]

21 hours ago, Spacetraindriver said:

I was switching to another ship because the camera started freaking out. It never loaded. It kept on playing this on loop...until  forcequited the game.

  Reveal hidden contents

 

What is it?

Wow, that's a lot of science being transmitted.

I would say you've got some kind of conflict with a mod. Maybe check out each of the mods you're using and see if there are any reports of it conflicting with something.

[Puggonaut]

Happy Chrimbo all

 

[NISSKEPCSIM]

I finished my inflatable centrifuge and habitat just in time for a Christmas pre-release! Queue the Christmas music!

 

Edited December 25, 2017 by NISSKEPCSIM

[Tyko]

First crewed landing went well with Jeb doing flag and footprints with a 1 crew lander. Jeb was excited to make the trip, while he was there he walked 1/2 a kilometer to the site of the first robotic lander. On the way back he landed hard and sprained his ankle. He called back to KSC and said "hey guys, I don't think landing just one kerbal is very smart. What if the kerbal gets injured?" The engineering team decided for future missions they'd use 2 crew landers.

Full Album: https://imgur.com/a/XkoqJ  (Next up: Small Lunar Station, a 2 crew lander and more SCIENCE!!!)

[Angelo Kerman]

I finished the parts to make this:

Available in DSEV's pre-release 2.9.9!

[Corona688]

Gave my kerbals a festive shower of space debris by deorbiting a good dozen obsolete relay satellites.

[Acooper41]

On 26/02/2017 at 2:46 AM, NISSKEPCSIM said:

 

 

 

Hi there.
May I ask which mod you obtained the VA capsule from?

@NISSKEPCSIM

 

Edited December 25, 2017 by Acooper41

[Chemp]

On 12/23/2017 at 12:29 PM, Spacetraindriver said:

What is it?

That's the Duna SSTV. You've inadvertently found an easteregg!

Here's a video for comparison.

[FrostedShoe]

Forgot to add a heat shield or engines that work well enough in an atmosphere to my Duna lander. Luckily it didn't burn up so it was in one perfectly functioning piece when it hit the ground at 1km/s. Was even going too fast to deploy the chutes (the only thing I remembered to put on) so I don't know if they would actually work.

On the plus side I remembered to put a probe core, solar panels and antenna on the transfer stage so I have a rather big relay sat in orbit to show for my efforts.

 

[Fearless Son]

I completed a "Recover a Kerbal and their ship part from the surface of the Mun" contract.  I decided to send over a large lander with a cargo bay and a rover with a klaw on it.  Here is how it went down.  

Getting this vessel into orbit was more like launching a shuttle than a rocket, except the shuttle used none of its own engines.  We needed a careful balance of thrust and mass due to the unavoidable asymmetry.  Thus, we employed a Mammoth and a Mainsail, side-by-side, with four Kickbacks and a couple of drop tanks.  I found that during ascent, the shifting flow of fuel would make control more difficult, unless I progressively reduced the thrust output of the Mammoth to the point that the SAS could compensate for it.  Fortunately this was not too difficult as I could generally make the adjustments between burns.  

There was an extra fuel tank inside the cargo bay.  Since that space would be needed later in the mission for the part we needed to recover, I figured it was a nice place to stick a drop tank we could burn off to make our Munar transfer.  Once we were on an impact course for the Mun, the empty tank was dropped, then the engines made a fine adjustment to put us into low Munar orbit, while the tank sailed on to be safely disposed of by high velocity impact with the regolith.  

While I had closed the cargo bay hatch after ejecting the drop tank, I was a little worried because by the time I got to Munar orbit the batteries were nearly drained.  It turned out that because I had adjusted the placement of the solar panels so they would fit more flush with the surface of the bay, their center of mass was technically inside the bay walls, and thus the panels were inoperable while the bay was closed.  Thus, the bay spent most of its time open.  In the picture above, the craft has been met at the Mun by a refueling drone because while I had planned for enough delta-v to get to the Mun and back again, I forgot to account for the fact that the place I needed to land had a big inclination adjustment and was getting nervous about fuel levels.  

I forgot to get a picture of the lander coming into land, but it has a set of four Twitch engines on each outboard pylon.  Not much thrust for this amount of mass, but good enough for the final descent into a belly landing.  The landing was successful, a few hundred meters from the target, and it was revealed that Lizke Kerman was there with her Hitchhiker Storage Container.  She planted a flag to mark the occasion of her rescue, and the rover undocked from the cargo bay and headed out to meet her.  

Fortunately, the rover easily grasped the Hitchhiker, and Lizke hopped into the passenger seat, ready to get out of here.  I was a little worried about the rover carrying all that, but it handled it easily.  Having that big reaction wheel under the seats (and set to SAS only) helped go a long way toward compensating for any center of mass issues brought on by oddly shaped cargo.  

The moment of truth was getting the rover back into the cargo bay and docked in place, and it worked perfectly.  Rolled right up the ramp. connected to its docking port, cargo container still snugly grabbed with the AGU.  Lizke went into our spacious passenger compartment, grateful to get some fresh snacks and a chance to strip out of her space suit and towel off for the first time in days.  Okay, time to get out of here.  Doing the pre-flight check, stowed cargo, check, crew strapped in, check, electrical systems, check, engine activation, check, fuel tanks... -uh oh.  

"This is Mun Recovery One, Kerbin, we have a problem..."

Turns out that even with my refueling, the craft no longer had enough fuel to make it back to Munar orbit.  It could only manage a hop, at best.  The earlier miscalculation was worse than we expected.  The craft would need to make an on-surface refueling, which is much more complicated than an orbital rendezvous refueling.  The engineering team at Kerbal Space Center flew into action, and slapped together a probe on wheels which could land itself, drive up to the lander, and refuel it from below.  It was promptly put in a launch vehicle and sent to the Mun.

The refueling drone had two tanks worth of rocket fuel to deliver, making the final stage of its descent on a quad of Puff monopropellant engines.  I have no idea how two of the tires got blown up while in flight (I certainly made sure they were intact at launch) but fortunately it was built with redundant tires in mind for just such a situation.  The two small ore tanks on top of it are simply ballast, intended to adjust the center of mass both for the sake of the launch vehicle and to make the landing controllable.  They can have their content jettisoned once it reaches the surface, but the extra weight helps add friction to the tires.  

Unfortunately, it turns out that the engineering team at KSC assembled this refueling drone a little too quickly.  It was not able to wedge its refueling port under the lander to meet the refueling port on its bottom.  The crew of the lander are now grumbling about shoddy government work and lack of standardization, wondering what they are expected to do with a set of badly needed fuel they cannot actually connect to.  Then one of them gets an idea: the rover they brought along is designed to dock with literally anything because they did not know exactly what they would have to recover.  The rover itself has no rocket fuel tanks, but it is designed to connect to the lander with an arbitrary object docked to its other end.  They spring into action!

They roll the Hitchhiker Storage Container back out of the lander and gently set it down out of the way.  Lizke Kerman volunteers to stand downhill beside it and make sure it does not go rolling away.  The rover rolls out to the refueling drone and neatly grabs it.  The turning radius is pretty wide with this docked setup, but it moves over the Munar surface more easily than the refueling drone alone did.  

Getting the drone into the cargo bay while attached to the rover was a challenge.  I had to let the AGU freely pivot so it could handle the change in incline of the ramp, but it made it in.  It hung out the back, but the rover was able to dock without losing its connection to the drone.  From there, it was just a matter of manually transferring the fuel into the lander.  Once the drone had fulfilled its mission, it was rolled back out, its brakes engaged, and its type changed to "debris" though I expect it to still remain technically "active" so long as it gets sunlight.  The rover connected back up to the Hitchhiker Storage Container and brought it back in again.  The whole crew sighed with relief: they can finally get out of here.

We had enough fuel now to aerobreak at Kerbin.  Sadly, it was not enough fuel to put us down right next to the KSC, but we were not exactly in a position to be picky.  The cupola module very nearly overheated during the first pass, to the point I evacuated the pilot to the crew module behind it in case it blew up, while the autopilot system (which was technically mounted in the docked rover so it could operate autonomously if necessary) kept it going.  I threw it into a spin to shed heat, which seemed like just enough to keep the cupola from exploding.  Future passes were done rear-end first, which was able to better handle the atmospheric compression.  It had just enough chutes to bring the whole thing just under 10 m/s when fully deployed.

Touchdown!  We have returned to Kerbin and are ready for recovery.  

Recovery contract complete.  That was actually pretty fun!

Edited December 25, 2017 by Fearless Son